Movie review: 30 Minutes or Less

Thursday

Aug 11, 2011 at 12:01 AMAug 11, 2011 at 8:11 PM

Sight unseen, the comedy "30 Minutes or Less" already has its critics, because it's allegedly inspired by a real-life tragedy involving a pizza deliveryman who robbed a bank with a bomb strapped to his body.

Sight unseen, the comedy "30 Minutes or Less" already has its critics, because it's allegedly inspired by a real-life tragedy involving a pizza deliveryman who robbed a bank with a bomb strapped to his body.

While there are a few unquestionable similarities, for the movie version of the crime things have been blown up - no pun intended - to ridiculous proportions.

Jesse Eisenberg's Nick is a stoner pizza delivery guy who goes from slacker to criminal after taking an order to Dwayne (Danny McBride) and Travis (Nick Swardson).

Their idiocy is truly remarkable, but Dwayne and Travis manage to get enough synapses firing to concoct a plot that involves suiting Nick up with a bomb and forcing him, under threat of detonation, to steal the $100,000 needed to have Dwayne's lottery-rich father (Fred Ward) professionally offed. Aziz Ansari, as Nick's best friend, is pulled in as his accomplice.

Clocking in at 83 minutes, "30 Minutes" is lean, like director Ruben Fleischer's previous film, "Zombieland." And as the premise indicates, it's also kind of mean, following in the footsteps of such crude, misanthropic, audience-polarizing comedies as "Observe and Report" and "Pineapple Express."

Fans of those films will probably get a kick out of this one as well.

Granted, its brand of stupidity isn't as inspired as "Pineapple," Eisenberg's character and a romantic subplot are poorly developed, and Fleischer lets the pace slack despite the short length. But the movie contains some quality vulgarity and a fair share of laughs, many inspired by the mere appearance of Michael Pena as a wild-eyed hit man named Chango.